What do you think about PMA Pilates certification exam? Is there any other board exam?
I’m a Pilates certified, but got my comprehensive mat and all apparatus certification abroad. I’ve been told I need to validate it in the US by taking an exam with a national accredited professional certification. The only one I found offering this third party certification exam in the Pilates field was PMA. Doing a research I came across some negative opinions about them. Including low quality and/or variety of CEU’s for maintenance of certification, doubts on its real value added, easy pass test stat.
I would like to hear some inputs before I invest money in some unnecessary certification exam. Or if its indeed needed do you know any other affiliation in the state of CA?
This
If you go to IDEAs list of organizations that certify/train for Pilates there are over 60
(and we could have a long discussion of how people offer certifications for revenue stream, and how too many places certifying make it difficult for people to find and recognize the wheat from the chaff, so to speak, but that is not what you asked)
However only one is NCCA accredited according to that list: PMA.
Being NCCA accredited is one way to measure the rigor of a program, though I don’t know that it is entirely necessary in the world of Pilates. It is, however, a plus mark for PMA.
A lot of those programs only offer mat certification, and some of them, if you look closely offer programs that are proprietary in some way (i.e. kind of Pilates mixed with other stuff. I am in no way denigrating that. I teach core classes based on yoga with things I have learned from other areas including pilates, and have had great success with that…. but is sounds like what you want is actual Pilates. I would suggest you look at this list and consider only those organizations that also offer apparatus certification. Here is the link:
https://www.ideafit.com/certifications/pilates?page=1&op=Apply&ajaxsubmit…
From what I have seen in my area if you teach in a health club a variety of certifications and trainings may be fine, but a lot of Pilates stand alone facilities seem to have a relationship with a particular school or style. You might look at some of the places where you would like to teach and see what most people there have.
Lastly, I would suggest you might look at Stott. Some of the best teachers with whom I have worked have had that.